Volcanic

                   Volcanic

Dark lines streak across the sky
Mascara of creation smudges
As drops on cheek flow
Chest heaves in disappointment and grief

Hopes once bound in belief
Melted in the crucible of life
Distorted from intense heat
Liquefied and molten emotions rage

Years of dormant pain erupt
Volcanic raw emotional lava
Mount Vesuvius spewing destruction
Purging decades of pressure

Wrath of neglect and abuse
On display to the world
Only in purging will relief come
Exposed rawness tapped

Out of destruction seed of new life
Letting go of all that's been carried
Unbound to the past
Cracks the casing around heart

Love seeps through
Displaces false comfort
Prison doors open
Soul liberated and free

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-059Z)

Hazy Fog

            Hazy Fog

Central Illinois childhood
Creek frozen over
Sweeping off the snow
Ice skating

Like the hazy fog
Faint memories
As they surface
In the dark drive to work

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-086y)

Rise

                     Rise

Out of the ashes they rise
Daffodils and Jonquils bedazzle
Stark contrast of rubble
Dotted with beauty

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-090C)

Prairie Coastline

        Prairie Coastline

Bluff jutting up
Coastline of the plains
Camouflaged in the earth tones
Five deer move as mountain goats

Written about going through Mitchell Pass.

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-086z)

Give It Away

          Give It Away

Fractured places

Broken people

Broken relationships

Broken hope

Carrying brokenness forward

Cycles of sowing the wind

Reaping the whirlwind

Generations repeat to the next

Interpreting cycles and participation

Exchanging and giving love into broken places

Aligning with Truth of situation

Walking into the pain with salve of Father's love

Expressing Father's grace and mercy

His healing in the midst of cycles

His love while staying internally solid

Grace binds up fractured people

Love offers hope to thirsty soul

Mercy given instead of judgment

From Father's goodness received

Freely give it away

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-076A)

Laramie Peak

          Laramie Peak

Laramie Peak softly touched

Purple and pink fingerprints

Upon creations canvas

Captivate as day begins

A settling upon my being

In first moments of fuzzy light

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-078B)

Bookend Day

                      Bookend Day

A bookend day
In light of full Lenten moon
Feeding horses as they neigh
Anxious for flakes of hay

Internal contentment washes over
Enjoying rushed moments before leave for work
Grounds the day in the brush of Morning's mane
In dogs pressing against me for one last rub

Repairing fence in dwindling light
Sky painted soft pinkish red
Even in midst of working
Still time to be captured by western horizon

Stillness in transition space
Moments of dawn and dusk
A beauty that captures soul
If dwell in the moment of a bookend day

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-073A)

Tumbleweed Sprint

            Tumbleweed Sprint

Harsh clouds race low on horizon

Grey look of snow

Longing for sun to break through

Grit fills the air

Wind surges pelting windows

Small debris peppers exposed skin

Brown corn stubble catches on fences

Tumbleweeds sprint across the fields

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-017A)

Spring Thaw

                Spring Thaw 

External weather effecting internal weather
Blustery morning gray and blue
Longing for a thaw
Spring

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-064A)

Eternity Today

                 Eternity Today 

Insulated coveralls hangs by the door
On the coat hook fashioned from horseshoes
Back pocket torn and frayed
Hangs lifeless without flesh inside

Heavily worn over many winters
Showing age just like the body that fits inside
Once young and invincible now lived in
Just like coveralls one day worn body cast off

World around us invisible
What is unseen will be seen
When cast off this body
World experienced anew
Truly alive as if for the first time

Beauty seen in a new light
Love experienced as intended
Joy and happiness free of pain and suffering
No more tears or regrets

To experience eternity today
Dwelling in the present engaged with unseen
Encountering Father, loving Him and receiving love
What heart and very being craves
The only One who can truly satisfy my being

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-062A)

Shock

                       Shock

Hoarfrost drifts lazily in morning light
Sun blazing bright, intensely reflected on snow
Dove foraging in the few bare spots
Made by a man moving the snow

Stillness fills the air
Cold with a bitter edge
Awakens mind to beauty
Shock to system as come alive

No longer numb
Nature's sharp reminder
Wakeup, live and experience
Soak in this day with gratitude

Father's mercy gives another day
A gift to explore and give back to Him
His many expressions of playful love
Waiting for me to engage with Him

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-056A)

Ill Wind

           Ill Wind 

Change foreboding in the sky
Darkness looms to the west
An ill wind blows
Ushering in the storm

Gathering fury soon unleashed
Lashing out at all things
Animals hunker down
Abusiveness heavy in air

Colors of late day sky
A pallet of soft and harsh
Pinkish red, bruising blue
Mingle on sky's flesh

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-054A)

Outsider

A poem about being sick.

                 Outsider
An outsider in my own body
Curiosity as stomach empties into bucket
Amazed at how body rejects and ejects
Calm as body revolts against sickness

Sleep finally comes as body starts to heal
Drift into fitful moments of rest
All of body's energy spent attacking sickness
Little left except to doze in cooperation

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-046A)

Double Payments No More

        Double Payments No More
Thief extorts a double payment
What's already been purchased bought again
Willing ways give self to double pay
Nullifying truth and work of Christ
An empty tomb marks death to double payments

Started paying double before encountered my Savior
Now bring all those places to the manger
Beginning place of salvation
Submitting to completeness of my ransom
Received and redeemed, price paid in full

Thief no longer has authority to demand payment
If I pay now I've bought his lie as in the Fall
Truth of Father shines bright bringing freedom
Salvation to all that I am, all the internal places
Transformation and new life begins today in Him

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-034C)

Found

                Found

Why oh why has been my cry
Change that tune and say goodbye
Set free from familiar that kept me bound
I'm no longer lost, I've been found

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-034C)

Phases

Suzie Q and Mattie

                Phases

Quietness with foal gone
Feed five flakes of hay to stallion
No commotion in the early morning moonlight
Barn silent as mare and foal leave empty space

Change of seasons accelerate
In one weekend three horses leave
Nine easy keepers left
Hush falls on property

Land notices the difference
No longer enough horses to keep fields down
Plump horses waddle
Angry they are locked out of fields during the day

Preparations for next phase of journey
As our nest becomes smaller
Soon another child stretches her wings
And just few more years with our youngest

Positioning and realigning
Our best days begin today
Today is the day of redemption
Now is the time to redeem

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-044A)

 

Exposure

          Exposure

Exposing lack of trust

Fear feeds on past interpretations

Misplace meaning and value

Believing lies of motive and intent

Judgments in response to pain and neglect

Binding self to repeating cycles of death

Truth of alliance with judgments

Want free, seeing it for what it is

Break cycles…..

EMBRACE LIFE, REJECT DEATH

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-061A)

Blown Closed

        Blown Closed

Snow crusted over

Miniature snow dunes of cold

Path blown closed

Footprints covered over

Crust of soul

Trail needs blazed

Fresh each day

Truth covered over

All that resists and lies

Seen as enemy it is

Hinders life and love

Choose to firmly reclaim that which is covered

Recover the covered

Clearing the land

Making beachhead wide

Liberating those captive

Awaken who I am

Primal and raw

Expressed and known

Inviting and claimed

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-060C)

Frozen Tank

         Frozen Tank

Coldness embraces the surface

Solidifying water on surface of the tanks

Each hour working deeper

Tentacles numbing what's life giving

With sharp long handled ice breaker

Shatter the spell placed upon the surface

Breaking Winter's grip

So can drink freely again

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-057A)

Pile of Shoes

        Pile of Shoes

A pile of shoes and boots

Lay in front of the door

With each passing year pile lessens

One out the nest, soon another

Pile of shoes reduced back down

To what it was when we first journeyed together

Two soles, two pairs of shoes with souls

Resting in a place we made home

A day will come when another family

Will call this farm home

Piles of shoes again will grow

Then wane in passing years

About the Author:  Brian Bucks lives on a small horse ranch in Western Nebraska and is a husband, father, electrical engineer, and poet. (17-059B)